Opportunities for paediatric resident education via social media

To the editor,\n\nAs medical educators continue to explore the use of technology and electronic media to support asynchronous learning amidst a changing educational landscape, social media may play a beneficial role in physician development.1 2 There are scattered reports of educational content delivered to medical trainees of all training levels over popular social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter, while other platforms such as YouTube and podcasts have also been studied, though to a lesser degree.\n\nMillennials are high users of social media, though few studies have assessed learner needs and preferences regarding medical education via social media,3 and to our knowledge, none in a paediatric sample. We sought to characterise personal social media behaviours of paediatric trainees and explore their interest in engaging with graduate medical education (GME) through social media.\n\nWe conducted a curricular needs assessment at an accredited residency programme in New York, New York, USA. An electronic questionnaire was developed to examine attitudes, behaviours and practices regarding personal social media use, obtain an understanding of learning preferences and assess interest in using social media for medical education. When possible, items from previously published …